Frothy and frilly

Many ornamental grasses grow discreetly, often unnoticed by visitors during spring and summer while they provide green backdrops. By fall, they have reached their full sizes, with frilly flower heads. The vertical white plumes of Japanese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis 'Helga Reich') pair nicely with horizontal yellow spikes of goldenrod (Solidago rugosa 'Fireworks').

Red and silver for impact

Both Japanese blood grass (Imperata cylindrica 'Red Baron') and rosemary willow (Salix elaeagnos) have fine-textured foliage, but the combination works because cool tones play off deep ones. The rosemary willow itself is intriguing when blowing winds expose the silver undersides and the green tops of its spiky leaves.

Sedum beauty

Some plants hold up through winter. Others that give you a color boost but "melt" at the first frost are still worth using. Here, that's the case with sedum 'Autumn Joy', which lasts, and artemisia (Artemisia vulgaris 'Janlim'), which doesn't. Pair these drought-tolerant plants for their neon colors and to contrast the fleshy, round sedum leaves against the lacy, chartreuse artemisia foliage.

Cool and calm

A nearly monochromatic color scheme can work if you use contrasting textures, such as delicate, white-petaled heath aster (Aster ericoides 'Monte Casino') against the large, jagged silver leaves of cardoon (Cynara cardunculus). Some gardeners prefer using asters instead of commonly used mums in fall because taller, looser asters have a more natural form.

Foliage + foliage = beauty

There's not a flower in this combination. Instead, the medium-size silver eucalyptus (Eucalyptus cinerea) mixes with the coarse-leafed flowering kale (Brassica oleracea 'Osaka Red'). The colors of the kale intensify as the weather gets cooler.

Spikes and ovals

The long, sharply pointed leaves of New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax 'Maori Sunset') are great counterpoints to the rounded leaves of purple barberry (Berberis thunbergii 'Atropurpurea'), above. They repeat the same purple-pink tones, with the barberry a deeper hue.

Repetition of forms

The bold silver sage (Salvia argentea) and medium-size purple sage (Salvia officinalis 'Purpurea') combination grows from spring through fall. Though both salvias have similar shapes and hairy foliage that traps the morning dew, the light and dark colors play off each other.